Tracing Wallis Roots

Ronald Wallis

| July 2009

Last year a friend of mine gave me a copy of the March 2007 issue of Farm Collector. It has the huge Wallis Bear tractor on the cover. Since my last name is Wallis, I had to do some investigating. I contacted Fred Schmidt in Bluffton, Ohio, and he invited my wife and me over to his family home. He gave me an opportunity to drive the Big Bear myself. What a thrill!

My wife and I have been to Racine, Wis., and have gathered history about Henry Mitchell Wallis who designed and built the Wallis tractors. Henry Wallis was the son-in-law of Jerome Increase Case. When Mr. Case passed away, Henry Wallis was called in to run the Case Plow Works.